Fallon: Britain will continue to provide help to Iraq

Speaking at a British base in Cyprus where many of the airdrops are launched from, he said: "We will continue to provide any help that is needed."

He added: "We are continuing surveillance of northern Iraq so we can have a better picture of the humanitarian needs there.

"So we are flying aircraft over Iraq so we all have a better understanding of where the next threat is coming from and whether there are other minority groups that face the kind of barbaric terrorism we've seen."